Inside her, she felt his cock jerk. It made her muscles clench around him. Her legs tightened around his backside, and she let herself go, welcoming the waves of pleasure that raced through her.

“Daniel,” she moaned as her orgasm claimed her. “Oh, God, Daniel . . . ” Her words trailed into a soft sigh as she surrendered fully to him.

Daniel clutched her shoulders as he thrust one more time, burying himself so deep that she cried out. She felt the warm spray of his semen fill her at the same time.

Moments later, he collapsed on top of her, braced on his elbows and knees, his face nuzzled against her neck. His hot breath tickled pleasantly. Breathing hard, Sabrina held him firmly, not wanting to ever let him go.

“Are you okay, baby?” he whispered against her neck.

“More than okay.” She smiled. “Wow, you were different tonight.”

He lifted his head and gazed into her eyes. “Different how?”

She cocked her head and studied him for a moment. “I don’t know. More intense. Did something happen while you were in New York today?”

“No. Nothing happened. I just missed you.” Then he took her mouth for another kiss, preventing her from speaking.

7

Sabrina came down the stairs and looked around. “Holly?” she called out.

“In the kitchen,” her friend responded.

She walked toward the kitchen, entering it a moment later. “Are you ready for the dress fitting? We’ve gotta leave in a minute.”

Holly put her finger over her lips to stop Sabrina from saying anything further and pointed to Raffaela who was talking on the phone. Her future mother-in-law appeared flustered.

“This is awfully short notice to be canceling. But fine. If you don’t want to come to the wedding, then don’t come. We don’t need or want people like you here anyway.” Raffaela huffed with disgust. “Well I’m glad you’re not coming!” She slammed the receiver onto its cradle.

Sabrina glanced at Holly, tossing her a questioning look, but Holly simply shrugged, throwing her arms up in a helpless gesture.

“Good morning, Raffaela. What was that about?” Sabrina pointed to the telephone.

“Oh, nothing.” Raffaela smiled sadly.

“Somebody canceled?” Sabrina pressed.

Raffaela sighed. “It’s really no big deal, dear, please don’t worry about it. Sometimes people just cancel last minute, because they can’t keep their calendars straight.”

“Are you sure? You sounded very upset. We’re getting so close to the wedding and I want to make sure there will be no last minute problems to deal with.”

“It’s nothing that important. It’s just upsetting when somebody who said weeks ago that they were coming cancels all of a sudden.” Raffaela shrugged. “It’s no big deal. These things just happen sometimes.” She smiled and patted Sabrina’s hand. Then she took a pen and crossed out a name on the guest list, before placing it back on the counter next to the phone.

Sabrina’s gaze fell onto the list. She instantly noticed red lines going through several names on the list and picked up the piece of paper.

“What’s this? I only printed the guest list out yesterday morning. Did all these people cancel since yesterday?” She counted down the list. “That’s seven guests.”

Raffaela took the list from her hands, a tight smile on her face. “Honestly, don’t worry about it, cara. It’s normal for that to happen. When I got married, half of my family canceled on me at the last minute.”

Sabrina gasped. “But that’s horrible. I’m so sorry that happened to you.” She couldn’t imagine not having family present at her wedding. Though she knew that making sure that no fight broke out between her mother and her father, who were divorced, would be an achievement worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize.

“Of course, this does throw the seating all out of whack.” Raffaela frowned. “I’d better re-do the seating chart.”

“Do you need some help with that?” Sabrina offered.

“No, I can handle it.” Raffaela pointed to the car keys in Sabrina’s hand. “Where are you off to?”

“Holly and I need to go to the dressmaker for a last fitting.” Sabrina expectantly looked at her friend. “Are you ready?”

Holly nodded. “Let me just grab my handbag.”

Moments later, Sabrina and Holly were sitting in Daniel’s sports car and driving the short distance toward downtown Montauk, where the seamstress was working out of a tiny bridal boutique.